Brendan Cole

By Brendan Cole

Senior Reporter

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London-based rapper President T has an album called "There's Only One," but it looks like Donald Trump is challenging that claim.

Referring to himself in the third person on Sunday, the U.S. president used that very handle to deliver some praise. Trump's message read: "So great that oil prices are falling (thank you President T). Add that, which is like a big tax cut, to our other good economic news. Inflation down (are you listening Fed)."

Plenty of people were listening, and perhaps sensing a marketing opportunity, it was retweeted by north London grime artist President T to his 16,000 followers.

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Other responses to the president's self-congratulatory tone ranged from the irreverent to the political.

Journalist Jules Suzdaltsev wrote: "There's about an 80% chance he called himself "President T" because he forgot how to spell the rest of his own name."

Meanwhile, law professor Joyce Alene saw something more sinister, saying it was an attempt "to cast himself in the role of the good dad all of the neighborhood kids love in a 1950's TV show."

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Sheryl Lynee quipped that the T could stand for a number of attributes ranging from "tiny hands" to "toupee."

And Bill Weir from CNN, the network that Trump loves to hate, tweeted to his 117,000 followers: "Gas prices are 35 cents/gal higher than Nov. '16, dropping oil prices and down- for-the-year stock market have economists warning of recession.

"If you are going to call yourself President T, you have to wear chains and a mohawk."

That, of course, refers to the 1980's TV and film star Mr. T, whose catchphrase "I pity the fool" summed up how many social media users felt about the president's latest message.

One tweeted: "I pity the fool who voted for President T," and another said: "I have no pity for this fool."

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Trump has dished out plenty of epithets before. From Little Rocket Man (Kim Jong Un), Crooked Hillary (Hillary Clinton), to Mr. Magoo (his ex-attorney general Jeff Sessions), the president is never short of a nickname to disparage an opponent.

The Washington Post suggested that his reference to himself in the third person shows he is becoming more comfortable with his presidential identity—as well as perhaps subconsciously comparing himself to his predecessor Barack Obama, who called himself "President O."

But calling himself President T may have backfired, for a day at least, even if it means more sales for one London grime artist.

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